A man charged with two counts of murder this afternoon said that he was given the murder weapon the day after the shooting.

Christoph Duerr, 26, from Sandys, and Le-Veck Roberts, 21, from Warwick, were charged with two counts of premeditated murder in connection to the fatal shooting of Haile Outerbridge and Ricco Furbert inside Belvin’s Variety on January 23, 2013.

Mr Roberts is facing a separate charge of attempting to kill Zico Majors on January 16, 2013 in the Khyber Heights area of Warwick, although Mr Majors has said that Mr Roberts was not the one who shot him. He was also charged with taking a vehicle without consent and taking a vehicle without lawful authority.

Prosecutors have alleged that Mr Roberts was the gunman involved in both shootings, while Mr Duerr stored and supplied the firearm used.

Even though prosecutors have not claimed that Mr Duerr was at the scene of the Belvin’s shooting, he can be convicted of premeditated murder if it is proved that he knowingly aided and abetted the killers.

As the trial continued today, Mr Duerr took the stand, saying that since January 2012, he had been asked to handle several firearms for others.

He told the court that in January 2012, he was approached by someone he referred to as “Man A”, who handed him a silver-coloured 38mm firearm.

“It was given to me at my house,” he said. “I stashed it at my house. I cannot recall the amount of time that I had it for, but I know it was no longer than a week before I gave it back.”

Mr Duerr told the court that he believed the man used the firearm to protect his drugs and money.

While he said initially that he did not have possession of any other firearms at that time, Mr Duerr said later that the same person handed him a silver 9mm firearm that same month.

He testified that while in possession of the weapons, he took photographs of them both.

Several months later, in September 2012, he told the court that a second man handed him a firearm in the wake of the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Stovell.

Mr Duerr told the court that on the evening of the shooting, he was hanging out at Woody’s Bar when a party bus arrived with a number of people celebrating a girl’s birthday.

“I knew the girl whose bus it was and, later on, after they had been there for a while, we walked towards the ferry dock at Boaz Island,” he said. “We stopped at my house to pick up towels. When we left my house and on the way to the ferry dock we heard gunshots, or what we thought were gunshots.”

He said the girl caught a taxi, while he returned to Woody’s where he hung out a little longer. He was later told to come and get a weapon from a second man.

“He gave me a weapon and a bulletproof vest,” he said.

Mr Duerr told the court that he took the weapon because he was afraid, but held on to it for only a day before giving it back.

In early January 2013, he said Man A approached him again, asking him to hold a silver 38mm revolver, which he said he stashed in his mattress.

Mr Duerr said that on one occasion, a woman who cannot be identified for legal reasons saw him take out the firearm.

“I pulled it out and she saw it,” he said. “She started to panic, so I put it away.”

While the woman testified earlier in the trial that she saw two firearms under his mattress on that occasion, Mr Duerr said he only had the single firearm at that time. He held on to the weapon for a week before returning it.

On the night of the shooting at Belvin’s, he told the court that he worked until about 8pm and, after walking his dog and taking a shower, he went out to a friend’s house for the evening, stopping briefly at Woody’s Bar along the way.

The next day, Mr Duerr said Man A came to his home with a bag and asked the defendant to hold it for him. While he was not initially aware of what was inside the bag, he told the court that he later discovered that it contained three firearms — a silver grey 9mm that he had seen before, a black 9mm and a black 38mm. He said the man also handed him a blue sock, which he stashed beneath his box spring.

On January 27, he said the man came back to the house asking to collect the black 9mm, so Mr Duerr fetched it for him.

A day later, Mr Duerr said that he was at home when he looked out the window and saw a police car and armed officers. He told the court he grabbed the bag containing the firearm and ran into his attic, where he called Man A to tell him to come and get his guns.

Mr Duerr then ran out of the back door, evading officers but dropping the sock in the process. The next day, he gave Man A the firearms and turned himself in at the Somerset Police Station.

He later testified that on May 31, 2013, after talking with police officers, he made a statement admitting that he had received the firearms, but refused to identify the men who gave him the weapons out of fear of potential repercussions. During the interview, which was recorded, he said that he had handled a total of four firearms, and that he believed one of the firearms was the weapon used in the double shooting.

Asked why he made the statement, he told the court: “They asked me for information that could help them. I thought that if I gave them the information, we could work out a deal. I didn’t have anything to do with the murder that they were accusing me of.”

The trial continues.